Monday, November 10, 2014

Walpyrgus – Walpyrgus

Walpyrgus is a relatively new heavy metal
band from the USA. Although they’ve only been around for a couple of years, they bolster an impressive roster of musicians who have worked with some fantastic
bands: Twisted Tower Dire, October 31, and Widow, just to name a few. Their
first release is a 4-track EP, and is a release that showcases the band’s
great songwriting ability. It is clear that these guys have been around the
block in the music industry; they know how to create effective hooks and catchy
songs without sacrificing riffs, solos, or grit. The first song on the EP,
“Cold Cold Ground” is by far the best example of this. It has classic
harmonized guitar leads that everyone should love, incredibly memorable vocal
lines, and great pacing. Though the song itself isn’t excessively fast, the
guitar work can be quite dazzling at times. The tempo of this song is another
testament to the fact that Walpyrgus has some great songwriters. Usually a
release will open with an incredibly fast, blazing tune. By contrast, “Cold
Cold Ground”, while an upbeat rocker, certainly does not show the band playing
their fastest (that would happen on “We Are The Wolves”. Despite this, it is
the perfect opener for the EP.

Setting aside the cover song (a solid rendition of Mercyful Fate's “Doomed By
The Living Dead”), this release has two more originals. Both of them are quite
a bit shorter than the opener, but share many similarities in terms of style. Neither
of them quite reaches the heights of “Cold Cold Ground”, but that’s only because
that track set the bar high. What plagues this release, as much as I don’t like
to say it, is the vocal performance. To be completely fair to Walpyrgus’
singer, he is incredibly talented. He hits every single note that he needs to,
the construction of the vocal lines themselves is fantastic, and he doesn’t
really do anything wrong. The problem is that his voice just isn’t suited for
this style of music. He’s more of a rock singer than a metal one. There’s
nothing wrong with that, but for me it’s a struggle for two reasons. The first
reason is that his voice just feels out of place. When the vocal lines are
incredibly strong (such as on “Cold Cold Ground”) it’s easy to overlook, but at
other times it is more difficult. The second difficulty I have with his sound
is that I just don’t like many rock singers. This second criticism is down to
personal preference, and can’t really be held against him, but it definitely
makes me quite divided on an otherwise great release. If vocals are something
you can easily overlook (or you just happen to prefer someone more in a
rock-vein), “Walpyrgus” is a must listen. Even if you are a bit turned off based
on this description, it’s still worth hearing just because of how good the
music is.